The verdant green campus of NSS College, Pandalam, has been converted into the first digitised garden of its kind in Central Travancore. Thanks to the dedicated efforts taken in this regard by a team of students and teachers attached to the Botany department.
The college campus spread across 27 acres in the heart of Pandalam town houses flora belonging to as many as 58 species, five of them classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Endangered category
Among this, Cyas Pirpinalis and Zamia Furfuracea belong to the critically endangered category while Daldergia Latifolia, Ptero Carpus Indicus, and Sweitenia Macrophylla are the vulnerable category among the IUCN redlisted species, says Jitheshkrishnan R., Assistant Professor and programme co-ordinator.
The flora on the college campus has been scientifically documented and assessed by a team of students under the supervision of Dr. Jitheshkrishnan.
According to him, the digitisation has been undertaken by a team comprising Akhilesh A., Vishnu M.S., Abhijith R., Harikrishnan, Reshma, all MSc and BSc students, with active support from G. Pramod, college principal; G. Prasannakumar, head of the department, and Nandakumar, internal quality assessment cell convener.
QR code
Each tree and plant have been assigned with a unique QR code so that the visitors can access information about each species by scanning it.
Dr. Jitheshkrishnan said the visitor could get all the details about each species by scanning the QR code sticker affixed on the laminated name plate.
Location map of the trees on the college campus prepared as part of the green auditing too had been uploaded on the college website so as to locate each tree with ease, he said.
R. Prasannakumar, secretary of the NSS colleges central committee, has formally inaugurated the digitised garden at a function held at the college recently.
